Mill Hill | Four Basic Survival Skills for Children to Develop 

While the same dangers don’t apply in today’s world, learning survival skills can help children to deal with the unexpected and handle situations without needing to rely on others. By “survival skills”, we mean the skills needed for sustenance, like knowing how to find shelter and create warmth through the means of a fire. At our safari-style tented camps your child will have the opportunity to become one with the natural world, learn to be resourceful and develop bushcraft skills. We’ve teamed up with a private school in London to share four survival skills that we believe are essential for all children to learn.

How to Start a Fire

If ever stranded, knowing how to start a fire can help your child create a source of light and stay warm. If unprepared and they don’t have a lighter, a fire can be started from scratch using tinder and kindling. Tinder is what is used to start the initial flame and needs to be flammable. Wads of cotton wool soaked in Vaseline and birch bark that contains flammable oils work well. Kindling is what will keep the fire burning and the ideal materials to use are sticks, twigs, and dried leaves. In a tent that is protected from the wind, they will need to set fire to their tinder and throw the ball they create into their kindling so that it can grow and spread.

Situation Awareness

It goes without saying, but to survive outdoors, your child will need to be aware of their surroundings. Remembering landmarks and the environment around them can help them to put plans in place. Also, they will need to learn to remain calm when things don’t go as planned as stress and panic can lead to poor decision making.

First Aid

In the event that they injure themselves knowing how to do first aid can quite literally save their life. Teach them a few basics, like how to clean wounds, bandage and keep things sanitary.

Hygiene

Staying as clean as possible, whether this be the water they use to wash or staying out of stagnant patches of wet land, is vital for avoiding infections. By keeping up good hygienic habits, kids can protect themselves from getting ill or sick.

The most important lesson of all is to raise them with the right attitude and mindset. It’s important that they have faith in themselves to get themselves out of challenging situations, so work on their confidence and provide plenty of encouragement.